ST. LUCIE COUNTY – The Top 10 News Stories of 2025 here truly ran the gamut, from final approvals of the P-1 Motor Club development in unincorporated St. Lucie County and a new soccer stadium and club for Port St. Lucie to the sudden resignation of the Fort Pierce Police chief and subsequent unrelated arrest of a Fort Pierce commissioner on charges of Internet crimes against children. Come along as the Hometown News looks at 2025 in the rearview mirror.
Fort Pierce commissioner arrested on 24 counts of Internet crimes against children
Fort Pierce District 2 City Commissioner James Taylor III, 38, is currently facing multiple felony charges involving alleged “harmful, “obscene” and “lewd” internet solicitation and child pornography with a female minor in Illinois. The St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office arrested Taylor on July 24 after several months of collaborative investigation between the Sheriff’s Office and Evansville, Ill. authorities who had followed a Snapchat trail of sexually suggestive online messages and photographs. The commissioner subsequently submitted his resignation on Aug. 2, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis formally suspending him a couple days later. Taylor entered a plea of not guilty on Aug. 29, and authorities later dropped two of the charges against him. The city is holding a special election Jan. 13 to fill his empty seat. District 2 voters will decide that day between former St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Dzadovsky and political newcomer Jaimebeth Galinis.
Port St. Lucie Council finalizes soccer stadium agreement
City Council members unanimously approved an operating agreement with the United Soccer League for the construction and maintenance of a 6,000-seat stadium at Walton & One during a special Nov. 4 meeting, after at least 20 members of the public spoke out both in support and opposition.
This was the second reading of the ordinance first publicly debated and approved by the Council on Oct. 20 after a series of meetings with the Economic Development Council of St. Lucie County and USL representatives on the potential lease of city-owned property near the southeast corner of U.S. 1 and Walton Road. During the final hearing on Nov. 4, Tampa-based USL Deputy CEO Justin Papadakis described his vision for a new soccer team to be known as the Port St. Lucie Sports Club.
“Today’s a really exciting day for USL because it is the next chapter in a vision we had back in 2008,” he said. “That vision was radical at the time but pretty simple. What if could use soccer in our stadiums as the anchor for the most important thing, which is investment in our communities? Port St. Lucie is going to be part of the next class of markets we’re bringing those elements to. We feel grateful and excited that we can be part of this transformational development.”
During that same meeting, EDC President Pete Tesch estimated the proposed stadium would generate 557 jobs and an economic output of $79 million.
Fort Pierce Police Chief Diane Hobley-Burney abruptly resigns
Police Chief Diane Hobley-Burney unexpectedly submitted her resignation to City Manager Richard Chess via email May 10 after a 10-year tenure as the department’s top administrator. Hobley-Burney’s resignation came on the heels of an outside consulting firm’s evaluation of the department and May 12 comments by some commissioners and police officers that they’d lost confidence in her leadership. Hobley-Burney acknowledged in her email that “comments made during the waning minutes of last Monday’s commission meeting have undermined trust, introducing division within the department and significantly eroded morale. Allegations of promised changes to key leadership positions have fostered an atmosphere of conflict and made it increasingly challenging to lead effectively under such circumstances.”
A police department evaluation commissioned by the city with the Center for Public Safety Management included nearly 100 recommendations for improvement and changes at the department, but none were blamed on Hobley-Burney. After a recent search, the City Commission hired David M. Smith of Prince William County, Va. to lead the Police Department.
FPUA approves $28 million grant for redirecting wastewater away from Lagoon
The latest grant assignment by both the Fort Pierce Utilities Authority and the City Commission released $28 million in Florida Department of Environmental Protection Resilient Florida grant funding toward the redirection of wastewater from South Hutchinson Island and the Indian River Lagoon to the new $139.5 million mainland plant nearing completion off Glades Cut Off Road.
FPUA staff learned a year and a half ago that FDEP had deemed the redirection phase of the project eligible for the funding. It took some time, however, for the City Commission, the FPUA and the state to all formally sign off on transferring the fund management directly to the Utility. FPUA director of public affairs and sustainability Rachel Tennant introduced that request to Board members during their July 15 meeting, during which she also provided the Board a comprehensive progress report.
PSL Council majority rejects mobility fee increases
The City Council here failed to reach consensus on amending its Mobility Plan Ordinance on first reading Dec. 1 due to an absent member, effectively losing its chance to raise rates more than 50 percent due to new state regulations going into effect Jan. 1 requiring unanimous Board approval to claim the necessary extraordinary circumstances to do so.
Vice-Mayor Jolien Carballo chaired the meeting in the absence of Mayor Shannon Martin, a fact that ultimately complicated the lengthy discussion and led to the ultimately failed votes to forward the agenda item onto second reading. Because the diminished Board ended up with a few tie votes, Councilman David Pickett actually switched his vote from approval to denial that day to end the stalemate 3-1, with the vice-mayor dissenting. Afterward the city attorney acknowledged that a planned second reading on Dec. 8 was no longer necessary and the Council would have to wait until next year to raise the rates again.
City approves works without final Highwayman Museum change order in place
The Fort Pierce Redevelopment Agency made the rare move Dec. 9 to authorize additional work on an exterior patio area of the Highwayman Museum without having the approved $14,000 change-order beforehand due to the looming holiday period and the desire to see the new facility open by February 20. During a handful of previous discussions this year over cost overruns and change-orders that affected progress on the restoration of the Avenue D building that will house the museum, the City Commission approved some change-orders while rejecting others.
Those requests so frustrated Board Member Curtis Johnson Jr. that he affirmed he would never approve another one on the project. The latest change-order, however, was not by requested by a developer but rather by the city’s Special Projects Coordinator Audria Moore.
She had previously been asked by the Board to get a quote from the contractor doing a brick-paver pathway around an oak tree on the possible extension of that to create a courtyard-style event center on the premises.
Because Board members wanted the grand opening to coincide with the 2026 Highwaymen Festival next February, time was not on their side.
After getting a legal opinion by the city attorney, they voted to authorize the contractor to begin additional work prior to actually authorizing the $14,000 change-order.
PSL Council gets earful on dead fish in Elkcam Waterway
Numerous city residents living along the banks of the Elkcam Waterway in Port St. Lucie decried a massive fish kill in mid-June for which they blamed the city’s long-term contractor Riviera Beach-based Aquatic Vegetation Control. A handful of those residents addressed the City Council on June 23, demanding more information about the herbicide employed a week prior and an investigation as to what could have caused thousands of fish to die soon afterward.
After the Council ordered a thorough investigation, both city environmental staff and the company representatives determined that one of the workers used an approved herbicide without first checking the water’s oxygen levels, which had become depleted by the unusually warm summer conditions and the possible presence of blue-green algae blooms. Those factors contributed to the death of thousands of fish.
PSL Council majority denies changing land use for Cleveland Clinic ER
The City Council majority rejected a Cleveland Clinic request to change the future land use of a 5.8-acre Becker Road parcel from commercial limited to general commercial on Dec. 8, citing compatibility concerns with the homes closest to the property where the company wanted to build a free-standing emergency department and urgent care facility. This was actually the third failed attempt by developers seeking the same land use change on the property within last 15 years. Developer proposals in both 2006 and 2008 were denied for similar reasons.
A handful of residents addressed the Council that day, with all but one in opposition.
Florida Coast Medical Center CEO Tyler Sherrill objected to the new facility because his emergency room and hospital on the other side of the Florida Turnpike had been open for less than four months.
“We have much capacity to grow,” he said, “and adding a Cleveland Clinic so close to FCMC would deplete heathcare resources.”
After much discussion, the City Council voted 4-1 for denial, with Vice-Mayor Jolien Caraballo dissenting.
SLC Commission transmits P-1 Motor Club utility request to state
The St. Lucie County Commission unanimously agreed May 6 to transmit a request by the P-1 Motor Club to amend its special district in the comprehensive plan to enable the provision of temporary potable water and sanitary sewer services to the development despite the fact the property is outside the Urban Services District.
A few months prior, commissioners had rezoned the 630-acre property near the intersection of Okeechobee and Sumerlin roads to planned mixed use development.
In August 2023, a different Board had voted 4-1 to change the future land use on the property from Agricultural 5 to Special District Future Land Use, a new category that county officials created specifically for the novel project geared toward private sports car racing enthusiasts.
After the state had no objections, the Commission authorized the utility service and construction work began on the unique residential development where speed fanatics can purchase homes and/or unique garages with connected living spaces and regularly test their racing skills with their own vehicles on two distinct tracks.
A research and development park and classroom areas are also planned to provide racing enthusiasts and their families a place of their own in the Southeast Florida sun.
St. Lucie Commissioners hire new attorney
After a headhunter proposed scheduling a second round of candidate interviews to fill the county attorney position vacant since Dan McIntyre’s Aug. 29 retirement, the St. Lucie County Commission decided Nov. 18 to switch gears and promote long-term Assistant County Attorney Katherine Barbieri instead.
The Commission majority had initially approved a short list of candidates on Sept. 15, but District 1 Commissioner James Clasby opposed all three, alleging they were politically biased and promised he would make their public interviews “very embarrassing.”
When told a few days that all three had withdrawn their applications, commissioners authorized a new search.
When the talent scout provided the results of that second search last November, the Board made the impromptu decision to promote Barbieri, who had been serving as acting county attorney and had not initially expressed interest in the position.